Amid Union Carbide Waste Disposal Row, MP CM Blames Congress For 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy; Oppn

Bhopal, Jan 4 (PTI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday blamed the Congress government for the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster, and accused it of not taking any action to dispose of the toxic chemical waste in its aftermath.

The Opposition party hit back, saying the past governments of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power in the state for two decades, never got around to cleaning up the defunct factory where the chemical waste lay.

The mutual recrimination came amid protests at Pithampur where 337 tons of Union Carbide waste was transported earlier this week for incineration.

“Remember during whose time the Bhopal gas tragedy occurred. It was a factory of death. Lakhs of people died but they (Congress) did not feel ashamed,” CM Yadav said at a function at Lateri in Vidisha district.

The Congress government allowed the factory to run despite the danger, he alleged.

“Their government was in power for 20 years (after the tragedy), people died, neither did they worry about the victims nor did they worry about disposing of the hazardous waste, because they do not have a soul, these are ruthless people,” Yadav said.

The BJP government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, will keep the people of the country safe while following the instructions of the Supreme Court and High Court (regarding the waste disposal), he added.

On December 3, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had set a four-week deadline to transport the waste to a disposal site.

Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Umang Singhar, in a post on X, reminded the CM that the BJP was in power for much of the time in the last two decades.

“Shivraj Singh was also the head of the BJP government, so why was there no discussion held on Union Carbide waste? #Maun_Babu (Mohan Yadav) thinks his government is the (only) government of BJP. He does not consider the four terms of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as BJP government,” Singhar said.

“Who bothered about the toxic waste of #Union_Carbide during the 18-year tenure of Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur and then Shivraj Singh? Before telling lies on the stage, see the reality of what your government did!” he added.

On the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 5,479 persons and leaving thousands with serious injuries and long-lasting health issues. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)